What They Saw
by chatnoir06
Summary: Complete! In which Marius, Eponine and Les Amis tell the action at the barricades as they saw it, and Cosette reflects on Marius. Stay tuned for one extended chapter.
1. Look Down

A/N: Yaaay! It's finally here. This is the über-school project I've been mentioning here and there, it's finally up! Please, I really need your reviews! Disclaimer: I own nothing from this, really, it all comes from the [incredible] minds of Victor Hugo, Alain Boublil, and Claude-Michel Schönberg. This is based mostly on the musical, though there are several plugs from the book hidden inside.  
  
Enjoy, and sorry about the formatting-if there is a line with a . and no space, there was supposed to be three periods, a ... there.  
  
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**Marius**  
  
"It is sickening, no?" Enjolras murmured. Out of the corner of my eye I saw him glance reprovingly over the dank, filthy street, filled with paupers and other unsavory inhabitants.  
I did not look up from my paper, intrigued by the article. Instead, I replied only with a short "Mmm."  
Enjolras looked at me. "What has your attention now?" he asked curiously.  
"An article about Lamarque," I replied, looking up finally and showing the article to Enjolras, "He won't last the week, they say."  
"Yes, so I've heard." said Enjolras darkly.  
I gave a sigh and folded up the paper, then dropped it on the pole of books sitting at my feet.  
"Where are the leaders of the land.these 'swells' who run the show?" Enjolras asked sarcastically.  
I shrugged dejectedly. "Lamarque is the only one who gives a damn for the people, here below." To accentuate my point, I waved a hand at a shivering beggar lingering in a doorway. Enjolras crossed his arms and looked around, shaking his head in disgust. I continued in a tone which was hopeful that he would drop the subject, "Nothing to be done about it, I suppose."  
For a moment I thought that it had worked; Enjolras did not reply. He only sighed and stayed quiet, no doubt reflecting on what I had told him. I felt like leaving, there were things that I had to do before the meeting at the café.  
Enjolras looked down at my pile of books and chuckled. "Always toting around those texts. As though it will do you any good!" His good- natured expression disappeared. "Not after Lamarque is dead, that is for certain." He remarked quietly. I fount myself rolling my eyes discreetly- I certainly didn't disagree with Enjolras and his political views, but he was a bit.depressing in his fanaticism. He apparently didn't notice my movement at all, and continued his speech. "No-the poor will remain in poverty, the rich in their mansions, and the King will have nothing to say for it. But he'll take in Lamarque as his own hero once he's dead, and pretend that he fought for the glory of France, that's what he'll do!"  
"Enough," I said quietly. I could see the way his eyes were flashing, his temper rising. "Save it for later, when somebody is actually listening." I added with a grin. Enjolras looked at me and cracked an amused grin, then shook his head.  
"But how long, Marius? How long before the barricades arise, before these people begin to see? I can only hope that the day draws near." He said. I shrugged my shoulders again. We fell silent for a long time. Enjolras began to stare at something behind me.  
"Look, it's your friend." He said, nodding in the direction behind me. I furrowed a brow and turned. Enjolras nodded at Eponine, a girl no older than myself who was always hanging about the dingy streets. I sighed and hoped inwardly that she hadn't seen me-I wasn't quite in the mood to speak with her. She was always clinging to me, trying to play with my hair and teasing me about being a student at the University. I had the notion that Enjolras and the other members of the ABC Society knew this, and were bound and determined to make a show of me-good naturedly, of course.  
Eponine turned her gaze in my direction and no doubt spotted me. I groaned, knowing there was no getting out of a conversation with her now.  
Enjolras nudged me. "No worse than Grantaire and his drunken cynics, is it?"  
I looked sidelong at him and rolled my eyes, visibly this time, and made a motion of sarcastic laughter. I bent down to pick up my books. I would have to go and talk with her for a little while, anyway, now that she'd seen me. Enjolras turned to go.  
"I'll see you at the café. And don't be late!"  
I nodded. "A bien tôt."  
  
**Eponine**  
  
"Dieu, this place has gone to the dogs." I muttered as I looked over the filthy Parisian street. Beggars and prostitutes littered the dark alleyways as rats in a sewer. But I'm not better myself, I thought miserably. And my father's gang is probably worse.  
Hushed voices from a shadowy corner came to my ears and I turned to listen. "Everyone here?" my father hissed, looking at me, and then at my mother, before he swept his piercing gaze over the rest of his awful gang.  
  
"Yeah, so what if we are?" snarled Brujon, a big man who, though I'd never admit it to anyone alive, scared me. "You'll get us into trouble again, Thénardier, and then where'll we be?"  
My father ignored him and went on talking. "You all know your places. Montparnasse, you and Eponine watch for the law. Take care! No mistakes, my dears." He warned.  
I shook my head and glanced aside with a disgusted sigh. I looked up only to make brief eye contact with Montparnasse before moving away from the shady group.  
I walked out to the lit street and spotted two students in front of the University. My heart gave a leap when I saw Marius, and it began to pound very hard when his gaze met mine-did that mean that he was starting to like me the way I liked him? I watched him part ways with his friends, and I tried to look natural as he made his way to me.  
"How are things today, Eponine? I haven't seen you around much.  
I smiled. "Don't worry, here is where you can always catch me."  
Marius gave me a scolding look. "Mind that to /police/ don't catch you!"  
I chose to ignore his remark. He always chided me like that, like I was only a little girl. He seemed to forget that I was his age, probably older, too. I nodded toward the books he held under his arm, eager to change the subject. "What do you do with all those books?" I paused a moment, then answered my own question. "I couldn't been a student, too. Don't judge a girl by her looks alone. I know a lot of things, yes sir." I gave him another confident smile.  
Marius shook his head, but he looked amused. "Oh, Eponine. The things you know, you can't find in books like these."  
"Oh, I like the way you grow your hair." I said dreamily, paying more attention to his handsome face than to his nagging words.  
He laughed jovially and patted my shoulder. "I like the way you always tease."  
I didn't mean to, but I felt my smile falter. /Little he knows,/ I thought to myself. /Little he sees./  
  
**Cosette**  
  
"I do not like this place one bit, Cosette." My father murmured to me. I glanced over at him and chose not to reply, instead I looked back at the street as we walked. I couldn't quite say I disagreed. It was a frightening place, to be sure, one full of staring people that watched us as we walked, two respectable middle-class Parisians-bourgeois, they called us-in the rat's lair.  
I glanced in the direction and caught sight of a rather handsome young student. He was talking with another girl about my own age, and it was apparent by the look on his face that he did not want to be having that conversation. I lingered my eyes for a moment on the girl. She looked vaguely familiar to me, but I knew that I'd never seen her before in my life.  
"Please, Monsieur." a voice from the side said. Both my father and I looked to where the raspy voice was coming from. It was a ragged-looking man, sitting next to a woman who was draped in a patched, thin blanket, weeping over what appeared to be a small baby. I had to frown sympathetically. I hated going down this street; there were so many beggars and poor who called at us pleadingly from the side streets, beseeching us for a morsel of food or a spare coat. It broke my heart, especially when I had so much that I didn't truly need. But my father would say nothing, only continue to walk, stone-faced and stoic as always.  
The beggar in the street rose from his seat and hobbled toward us. I took a step back, suddenly feeling the need to put some distance between us. He didn't look right. "Here's a child that hasn't eaten today. Please, spare a sou to save a life! God does reward all the good that you do."  
"Come, Cosette." My father said quietly, attempting to pull me along. I watched the woman with the baby. How pitiful! Oh, but I wished that I had a few sous that I could give to them, so that they could feed that poor child. What a wretched thing, indeed.  
"But, Papá." I protested, wishing to stay and help them. Or, at least the woman. But my father would hear none of it, and pulled me away.  
Suddenly, the man in the alley stopped his approach toward us. I saw him lay his eyes on my father like he had turned into a chicken, and he himself was a fox. "Wait a bit.I know that face!" he snarled suddenly.  
I didn't waste any time in moving behind my father, out into the street.  
  
**Marius**  
  
Eponine looked up as a well-dressed man and a pretty young lady started making their way down the street. I looked up too. Eponine wore an expression of growing apprehension, and I turned mine to confusion. Suddenly she turned to me and tried to push me away.  
"Stay out of this." She warned.  
"But, Eponine."  
She shook her head at me. "No! You'll only get in trouble. It's none of your concern." She said viciously, and started moving toward the gang. I stubbornly followed, furrowing a brow.  
"Who is that man?" I called, pointing at the man whom she was moving towards. Something about him didn't seem right.  
"Leave me alone!" Eponine shouted back at me.  
I continued to follow her. "What is he doing? Wait, Epo-" I stopped dead and fell back a step, realizing that I had just walked into the pretty girl who had been walking with the older gentleman. She stared at me with wide, beautiful eyes. At first I could not find my voice. "I didn't see you there..forgive me." I stammered finally, giving a slight bow.  
She was so beautiful! I hoped that the shock that had just run through my blood was not showing on my face.  
The young lady swallowed and shook her head. "No.it's all right. No trouble." She said. My heart was still beating painfully fast, even as I nodded uncertainly and backed away.  
  
**Eponine**  
  
I ran back to the shadowy side-street and jumped up on top of a box that was propped up against a light pole. Looking around to ensure that Marius-he was so stupid, trying to follow me!-hadn't come after me, I hugged the pole and then glanced at my father. He was trying to haggle money out of the well-dressed gentleman. I should have been watching for the police, but I was too busy watching Marius, who was still staring at the pretty girl.  
Suddenly a yell from my father split the air and I looked over. He was grabbing the gentleman and shrieking something about someone called Cosette.  
That name stirred an old memory near the back of my mind. Where had I heard that name before?  
It didn't occur to me that I ought to have been watching for the police until Montparnasse took care to remind me. "'Ponine!" he hissed. "Look out!"  
I whirled around and felt my mouth fall open. "Hey! It's the police, disappear! Run for it!" I jumped down from the box even as the gang scrambled away, just as the formidable Inspector and his constables walked down the street, scattering the beggars in their wake.  
I didn't bother to look back. Instead I ran away, down the street, where I knew the Inspector surely wouldn't follow. I stopped and dared a look back. I hadn't a clue where everyone else had gone, but realized that I really didn't care. The only thing on my mind was that girl I'd seen, the name that I had heard. It was whirling through my mind, digging up old memories of life in Montfermeil.  
"Cosette." I said aloud, savoring the name on my lips. "Now I remember! Oh, Cosette..." The name came out as a growl. "How could this be? We were children together. Now look.what's become of me." I looked down at my ragged dress, my too-small shoes. The tables had turned on me, it seemed-Cosette had once been the whelp, our slave girl who was dressed in rags and did all the work about the inn.  
Suddenly, I was not alone; Marius was walking almost blindly, it seemed, down the street in my direction. I crossed my arms and tried to appear unconcerned.  
"Good God, what a ruckus!" I said loudly, more to get his attention than anything.  
"That girl.who might she be?" Marius mused absently.  
"That cop, he'd sure like to jump us. But he aint smart like us." I continued, fully aware that he wasn't paying the least bit of attention to me.  
Marius looked over at me and approached slowly. "Eponine, who was that girl?" he asked.  
I scoffed. "Who, that bourgeois two-a-penny thing? How would I know?"  
He took my hands. I wanted to pull away, but couldn't bring myself to do it. "Eponine, will you find her for me?"  
I blinked. What kind of question was that? "What will you give me?" I asked curiously.  
"Anything!" Marius said, a look of relief spreading over his handsome face. He let go of my hands and went for his pockets.  
Pulling my hands to my waist, I laughed. "I've got you all excited now, but only God knows what you see in /her/. Aren't you all delighted now-" I paused, realizing that Marius was holding out a handful of coins. "Oh-no, I don't want your money.sir." Embarrassed, I backed up a step and stared at my shoes.  
Marius took me by the shoulders pleadingly. "Eponine, do this for me! Please, discover where she lives.but, be careful how you go. Don't let her father know someone's looking for her. Oh, 'Ponine. I'm lost until she's found!"  
I wanted to slap him. Instead, I nodded reluctantly and backed away, avoiding his gaze. "You see.I told you so. There are lots of things I know." Marius smiled gratefully at me and ran off down the street. I sighed. /'Ponine. She knows her way around./ 


	2. Red and Black

A/N: I promise I will get to fixing the thing with the miscreant ...'s, I know that must be difficult to read.it is for me!  
  
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**Les Amis d'ABC**  
  
Marius arrived late at the café. He slipped in the door and hoped that no one would have noticed. But Enjolras, alert and wary as ever, spotted him even during the middle of his speech.  
"Marius, you're late." He remarked, stepping down from his chair and wiping his palms on his coat.  
Naturally, all eyes turned to the pale Marius.  
"What's wrong wib you today?" Joly asked from his cushioned chair. "You look as if you'be just seen a ghost." He had his mirror on the arm of the chair, an object which the hypochondriac was seldom seen without, and that always made people chuckle.  
"Here, have some wine and tell what's going on." Grantaire said, offering his half-empty bottle to Marius as he entered the room.  
Marius waved away the bottle and moved through the uneven maze of chairs and the occasional table. Pausing near Joly's chair, he was struck with some sudden inspiration, and turned on his heel to look back at Joly.  
"A ghost, you say?" he asked. The confused Joly nodded his stuffed- up head. "Perhaps.she was just like a ghost to me. One minute, she was there, and the next, gone!"  
Enjolras appeared to be paying no attention to the musings of Marius, having turned to a map of Paris that was tacked to the wall, but he was listening, and rolling his mind's eye. Joly and the others all looked at each other and nodded knowingly as Marius went on, muttering "she".  
Grantaire rose from his seat. "I am agog, simply aghast! Why, is Marius, of all people, in love? I've never seen him 'ooh' and 'aah' so!" Marius ignored the obviously inebriated Grantaire, and instead crossed his arms and leaned against a table, falling into thoughts of the pretty girl. Grantaire wasn't finished. He climbed up on his chair with much drunken wobble. Combeffere and Feuilly, as well as the others, all jumped from their seats. "You talk of battles to be won, and he becomes like Don Ju- an!" Grantaire threw his hands up in a grand flourish, causing all the students to jump, fearing a fall. "It's quite better than an /opera!/" he sang.  
"Get down before you kill yourself!" Feuilly hissed, grabbing at Grantaire's flailing arms. He and Joly finally managed to pull him down and set him in his seat once more.  
Enjolras put his forehead in his hand and groaned. He waited patiently for the ruckus to die down once more. Marius was clearly paying no attention to any of it.  
Finally the noise died away, save for Grantaire chuckling to himself. Enjolras paced the front of the room.  
"As I was saying.before Marius joined us..we'll need something more to catch the Garde Nationale. We all need to decide, here and now, who we are. Are we simply rich little boys, fighting for the right to go to the opera? Have any of you, friends, any of you at all, asked yourselves of the price you'll be willing to pay?" He paused and picked up a large red shroud that was lying draped over a table, and held it up. "This-this is what it is all about, friends."  
He looked over at Marius, who was still not paying attention. With an exasperated sigh he leaned over Combeffere and ripped off a blank sheet of paper from his tablet, crumpled it up and threw it at Marius. It hit him squarely in the forehead and bounced off, drawing him from his reverie.  
  
"Marius, pay attention for once, damn it!" Enjolras said angrily.  
Grantaire burst into crazed laughter and he was not alone, many of the others joined him in having a good laugh at Marius.  
"You're no longer a child, Marius. I have no doubts that you mean it well, but now there is a higher call." Enjolras picked up the red shroud and shook it, then threw it at Marius. The lovesick youth caught it, looking down at the flag and then up at Enjolras once more. "Who cares about your lonely soul? We all strive towards a larger purpose. Our little lives don't count at all."  
Grantaire leaned back in his chair and gave a mock sigh of content. "L'amour.will you send her roses, Marius Pontmercy? Take care to make sure they are red, like the color of revolution." He stared up at the ceiling absently, a rather silly grin on his face.  
"Red." Enjolras whispered suddenly. "Red, like the blood of angry men." He smiled and snapped his fingers, then jumped up onto his chair. "That's it, don't you see it?" He looked around at all of his friends, waiting for them to catch on. Joly and Courfeyrac exchanged confused glances.  
"I once heard of black roses, as well." Said Grantaire, as he nodded his head wisely.  
Enjolras grinned. "And black, like the dark of ages past!" He wiggled his fingers excitedly, feeling his speech start to take shape. The others all started to grin as well, catching on finally. An excited fervor lit up the room. Enjolras held his hand out to Marius, motioning for him to return the flag. Marius tossed it back at his friend, who held it up. "Red, like a world about to dawn!"  
"And black?" Combeffere prompted.  
"The night that ends at last!" Enjolras cried. The students, Marius included, all threw their hands up with a jubilant cry. Enjolras jumped back to the floor. "Well Courferac, do we have all the guns? Feuilly, Combeffere, our time is running short!" He paused and glanced at Grantaire, who was sitting placidly in his seat still. "Grantaire, put that bottle down! Do we have the guns we need?"  
Grantaire chuckled. "Just give me my brandy, and it'll all be fine."  
  
"Surely," said Feuilly, leaning over Grantaire's shoulder. "One whiff of your breath and the entire Garde Nationale will pass out."  
Enjolras waved a dismissive hand and turned aside.  
Combeffere pulled out a piece of paper. "In St. Antoine they're with us to a man."  
"Twenty rifles, good as new!" Feuilly piped in.  
"Wiv twenty rounds for ebery man," said Joly.  
Suddenly the café door burst open and little Gavroche ran in, shouting and waving his arms about. "Listen!"  
"Double that in Port St. Cloud." Jean Prouvaire said to Joly. Combeffere started scribbling madly on his tablet. Marius had joined Enjolras, smiling once more.  
Gavroche kept on waving his hands. "Listen to me!" he yelled.  
"Seven guns in St. Martin," Lesgles said to Combeffere as he was writing down the numbers.  
Finally Gavroche resorted to climbing atop a table and shouting at the top of his lungs: "Listen, everybody!"  
The café fell silent and all eyes turned to the street urchin. "General Lamarque." he puffed, pausing to catch his breath. ".is dead!"  
A wave pattern rippled through the room as all heads turned instantly to Enjolras. Marius, ashen-faced once more, put a hand on his friend's arm. Even Grantaire appeared to have sobered.  
"Lamarque.is dead." Enjolras echoed faintly. At that moment Joly could have sneezed and no one would have noticed, perhaps not even Joly himself. "Lamarque, the people's man."  
Jean Prouvaire, a sudden frown on his face, turned to Gavroche and lifted the boy off the table to set him firmly on the ground.  
The look in Enjolras' eyes suddenly turned from one of despair to one of realization. "His death is the hour of fate, do you not see it? His death is the sign we have been awaiting!" He stepped away from Marius, looking at each and ever many (and boy) in the room before continuing. "On his funeral day, they will honor his name. It will be a railing cry that will reach every ear! In the death of Lamarque, we can kindle the flame- they will finally see that the day of salvation is near. The time is here, my friends!" Smiles had returned to every face once more. "Let us welcome it gladly, with courage and cheer!"  
The students all raised their voices in cheer. Even Gavroche joined in. Enjolras grabbed the red flag and jumped-skipped, rather-towards the door.  
"Let us take to the streets with no doubt in our hearts, and with a jubilant shout they will come one and all!" he cried. Again the students replied with an excited cry, and flooded out the door.  
  
**Cosette**  
  
I sat sadly in my garden, gazing absently out the gate that seemed so close, yet so far away. I was alone.  
"How strange." I muttered. "This feeling that my life's begun at last. Is it true? Can people really fall in love like this?" I paused and shook my head, grinning at myself and my childishness. "What is the matter with you, Cosette? You must've been on your own too long." I felt my good-natured smile fade and I rose slowly, walking toward the gate that had shut me out from the rest of the world for too long. I sighed, looking out at the growing darkness.  
"Does he know I'm alive?" I asked. "How do I know if he's real? Does he see what I see, feel what I feel?" I paused and sighed sadly. "Find me now, find me here."  
In the darkness behind me, the voice of my father surprised me. "Cosette?"  
I turned. My father smiled at me. "Oh, my dear Cosette. You're such a lonely child. How pensive.how sad. But believe me, if it were within my power, I'd fill each passing day. I can see how quiet it must be with only me here for company."  
I looked at him imploringly. "If you could fill each hour with the things that I'm longing to know! There's so little that you say of the life you have known. Please, Papá."  
He shook his head at me. It was the way he always answered my pleading questions. "No more words of a time that is dead. Believe me when I say that there are words better left unheard and unsaid."  
"But I'm no longer a child, Papá!" I said angrily. "I yearn to know the truth.yearn to know what you know."  
He still shook his head, and smiled wistfully. "You will learn, my child, that truth is given by God in our own time."  
I pursed my lips together and nodded reluctantly. My father smiled and kissed my cheek, then turned to go, leaving me alone once more. 


	3. In The Rue Plumet

A/N: Sorry if I didn't make this clear in the first chapter, but the point of this project was to write a narrative of the musical, so it would be rather difficult to do that without using lyrics. Sorry if that bugs you, but the rest is written pretty much the same way.  
  
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**Eponine**  
  
I was waiting for Marius outside the Café Musain, where he and his student friends would gather after their classes. I was slowly getting the impression that they were planning more than a study group.  
The students flooded out of the café with an excited fervor that almost frightened me. I spotted Marius as he ran past, and ran to catch his arm. "Marius," I whispered. He looked down at me, apparently surprised to see me again. "Come with me, hurry."  
I pulled him away, taking him down a dark side street.  
"Eponine, where are you taking me?" he demanded. I didn't reply.  
We came out of the alley into a wide cul-de-sac, where there was only one lonely, dark house, the front gate of which was shut.  
"This is it." I said. "Fifty-five Rue Plumet. I've done as you asked me."  
Marius looked over at the gate and them back at me, his gaze genuinely grateful. "Oh, thank you, 'Ponine!" he said, his boyish face bright. I nodded sadly and watched him run towards the gate and disappear over it. After he was gone, I slumped against the wall of the alley. "He was never mine to lose." I mused quietly, almost amused at my own silliness.  
  
**Marius**  
  
I cleared the gate and stood there in the garden for a moment, staring in awe at the young lady who was sitting on her bench with her back to him. She did not seem away of my approach. Her white dress reflected off the street lamp on the other side of the gate, and I was certain that the aura that seemed to surround her was coming directly from God Himself. I thought that I would burst into song, and perhaps the sound that came out of my throat then was a failed attempt.  
The young lady stood up and whiled around. There was surprise in her beautiful eyes, but not fear. She seemed to smile at me, even. I again tried to speak, but my voice failed me. She stared at me, as if waiting for me to speak.  
Finally I somehow managed to choke out some feeble words. "Oh God, for shame!" I slapped a hand to my forehead. "I don't even know what your name is, dead mademoiselle." I paused, swallowing the lump that was rising in my throat. "My name.is Marius Pontmercy."  
She smiled that angelic smile, making my heart soar. "And mine is Cosette."  
What a beautiful name! I found myself beaming. "Cosette." I echoed, savoring the beautiful word. "I don't know what to say."  
"Then say nothing." Cosette replied, her voice soft. I took a step toward her, and then two steps, and then I was so close I could reach out and touch her.  
I did.  
  
**Eponine**  
  
I lost track of the time while I stood there, leaning against that wall and staring off at nothing. I didn't know for sure what I was doing. /Why am I standing here waiting for him?/ I asked myself.  
Dejectedly, I shook my head and started to go. Glancing over at the gate one last time, however, I noticed someone there, someone who wasn't Marius. I squinted to see in the darkness. It was Montparnasse.what was he doing?  
I made my way over discreetly. "'Parnasse, what are you doing so far out of our pitch?"  
He looked over at me with a gleeful smile. "It's this house, we're gonna do it! Rich man with plenty of scratch. Do you remember the one that got away this afternoon?" he asked. I honestly had no idea who he was talking about, but I nodded all the same. Montparnasse nodded. "Probably's got a fortune put away!"  
I took a step back with a look of horror no doubt splayed over my face. My stomach gave a horrible drop. /Oh Lord, somebody help me! What am I gonna do? Marius will think this an ambush-he'll think I'm in on it too! Oh, I've got to warn them!/  
Out of the darkness, I saw my father and the rest of his gang appear from the alleyway behind Montparnasse. I ducked out of the way, off to the other end of the gate.  
"Yes, I smell profit here." I heard my father say happily, in a hushed voice. He was looking around at everyone and rubbing his hands together. "This'll cost him dear!"  
Brujon pushed my father. "What should I care who you should want to rob? Gimme my share and let's finish the thing."  
I saw my father send him a harsh glare. "Shut your mouth and give me a hand."  
Seeing my moment, I jumped out from the gate, unfortunately right in Brujon's path. The big man grabbed my arm and squeezed it tight. "What do we got 'ere?" he snickered.  
My father looked up, directly at me. "Who's the hussy?"  
Babet rolled his eyes. "It's yer brat, Eponine! Dontcha know your own kid? Why's she hangin' aboutcha?"  
Brujon's fingers left red marks on my arm as my father pulled me away. "Get on home, Eponine. We're enough here without you."  
I held my ground and pulled myself away from him, jumping on the pars of the gate. The crooks all seemed to lean toward me in anticipation. "I tell you, I know this place, and there's nothing here for you. It's only the old man and the girl, living ordinary lives." I said.  
"Don't interfere! Why, you've got a lot of gall. You should take care, young miss! You've got a lot to say." My father snarled at me.  
"Ah, she's goin' soft." Brujon laughed.  
"It happens to all." Said Claquesous.  
"Get on home, 'Ponine. You're in our way." Montparnasse hissed.  
"No! I'm gonna scream, I'm gonna warn them!" I threatened.  
My father threw up his hands in what appeared to first be an act of instinctual fear turned into a forced movement of anger towards me. I was pleased to see the alarm in his eyes. "One little scream and you'll regret it for a year!" he warned.  
"Not one sound out of you!" Brujon growled.  
I grinned-I couldn't help it. "I told you I'd do it!"  
Before any of them could stop me, I whirled around and screamed at the top of my lungs. It shattered the hushed quiet about the cul-de-sac.  
The gang seemingly flinched all as one, recoiling from the gate. My father grabbed my arms and hauled me off the gate roughly. "Oh, you wait my girl. You rule this night. I'll make you scream, you'll scream all right!" I struggled to get out of his pinching fingers, but he held on tight. "You all leave her to me and get out of here. Go for the sewers, get underground!"  
The gang scattered and he followed, throwing me to the ground painfully.  
All of a sudden Marius and Cosette were at the gate, staring down at me. "Was that your cry that sent them away?" Marius said. I couldn't help but scowl-he sounded so stupid. "Once more, you've saved the day, 'Ponine!"  
I looked up at them, rubbing a bleeding elbow. I locked eyes with Cosette and we stared at each other. It was the first time we'd seen each other in years. Cosette had a look of sympathetic remembrance in her eyes, and I was sure that the look in my eyes was one of burning humility.  
Marius looked over his shoulder. "Someone is coming. Let's not be seen, Eponine!" he said. Cosette broke her eye contact with me and gazed at Marius lovingly as he started climbing the gate. It made my stomach turn. He jumped down to the ground on my side and pulled me to my feet, then started running. I pulled myself away, though, and fled in a different direction.  
I hoped that the tears that were stinging my eyes weren't showing.  
  
**Cosette**  
  
I remained hanging by the gate, looking off in the distance as Marius and Eponine disappeared. They had left barely a minute ago, but I could already hear my father running.  
"My God, Cosette, are you all right?" he asked. I whirled around. "I heard a cry, voices out in the street."  
I did some quick thinking. He would surely be upset-no, more than upset, furious-if he knew that Marius had been there with me. "That was my cry, Papá. I was afraid of what they'd do.but they ran away when I screamed."  
"My child, what shall become of you? Who was out there?"  
I faltered a moment and looked out the gate. "There were three men, cloaked in shadow." I listened to my own voice fade out as I gazed absently out the bars of the gate, where my love had disappeared.  
Marius.he'd been there forever, yet only a moment, it seemed. My very world had changed around me, seemingly blooming from a world of lonely darkness into one of happiness and light. I could barely hear my father's frantic ramblings, until I heard my own name spoken. I turned to look at him.  
"Tomorrow, we go to Calais.then, a ship across the sea," he was saying. My heart gave a terrible leap. Where were we going? And why? Why was he taking me away from Marius?  
  
"Hurry, Cosette." He said to me, taking my arm. "Prepare to leave, and say no more. Tomorrow we'll be gone to safety, never you worry." I hesitated, shaking my head. "Hurry, Cosette!" His words seemed more urgent now. "It's time to close another door and live another day longer."  
Sadly, I turned and did as I was asked. I looked back at him forlornly. Didn't he know? Didn't he realize that staying at Rue Plumet was my life? If we left, Marius would be gone to me forever.  
I took one last fleeting look out the gate before turning and running to the house. 


	4. Eponine's Errand

**Eponine**  
  
I wandered for a very long time, losing track of time in my aimless walking. I wasn't certain where I was going-did it even matter? Eventually, I found myself in the middle of the courtyard by the University. I'd been there only hours--maybe? How long had it been?-- before, when I had taken Marius to the Rue Plumet.  
Stupid, stupid boy. Why did he have to ask me to worry about his troubles, too? Didn't he realize I had my own?  
I looked up suddenly, getting a feeling that I wasn't alone. There was a boy coming near, running right past me as if he hardly noticed me at all. Just like Marius.  
"Gavroche, where are you going?"  
The boy stopped. "Why do you care, 'Ponine?" he asked.  
"I want to know." I replied.  
"Why, /dear/ sister. Is that concern I hear in your voice?" Gavroche said with a positively devilish grin.  
"Shut up and tell me!" I snapped. I watched as Gavroche calmly put his arms behind his back and closed his mouth, making a humming noise and apparently finding it very humorous indeed. I snatched the hat off of his head and held it high out of his reach. He jumped for it but couldn't reach.  
"I'm going to join the students, tomorrow we're building our barricade." He said finally. "There, are you happy? Give me my hat back."  
I stared at my brother. "What barricade?"  
"Haven't you heard?" Gavroche asked, using my distraction to steal his hat back. "General Lamarque is dead. Tomorrow, after his funeral, the students will be leading an uprising!"  
"The students?" I echoed. The death of Lamarque meant nothing to me, I knew nothing of him. He was no one important. It was the mention of the students that had caught my attention.  
Gavroche rolled his eyes. "Didn't you hear what I said?" he laughed. "Yes, the students from the University. Enjolras and the others will be building their barricade tomorrow."  
I nodded my head slowly, an idea slipping to mind. Gavroche turned and started running off again. "Wait!" I called. The scraggly boy turned back. "Where is this barricade at?"  
"Rue de Villette." Gavroche replied, knitting his eyebrows together in confusion. "Why?"  
I smirked. "So that I know where to collect your dead body." I said. Gavroche waved a hand at me and took off.  
  
**Les Amis d'ABC**  
  
Marius came out of the tavern carrying two chairs, one in each arm, and stopped by Enjolras, who was intent on reading a map of Paris. Marius looked over at a man who was standing by the growing barricade, helping Joly break the legs off of a table. He was an older man, with sideburns and graying hair that was tied back. He had never seen him before.  
"Who is that?" he asked Enjolras.  
The rebel leader glanced up. "Just a volunteer." He said offhandedly. "Came in just a while ago."  
Marius nodded slowly and went to the barricade, throwing the chairs up on the growing stack.  
The whole place was alive with activity and excitement. None of them seemed to realize that it was Death himself on the other side of that barricade.  
Enjolras called all of his friends to attention. They all stopped their fervent work and turned back to him.  
"The time is nearly here, my friends." He announced. "As we stand here on these stones building our barricade to freedom, remember that you are not alone. Don't be afraid!" he paused, looking as though he was racking his brain for something he had forgotten. "Oh! I will need a report on the strength of our foe."  
The gray-haired stranger who had been working with Joly took a step forward. "I can find out for you, I know the ways of the Garde Nationale. In the days of my youth, I served my time and fought their wars." He said.  
"Good." Enjolras said, clapping the stranger's shoulder. "Go and come back when you have found out what you can. Quickly, and carefully my brother."  
Marius watched the stranger go, frowning to himself and shaking his head slowly. Something about that old man didn't look right.  
Jean Prouvaire and Lesgles resumed their work, stacking chairs and tables. Prouvaire stood high up on the growing stack as Lesgles passed him a broken chair.  
"Now the people will fight!" Prouvaire said almost happily.  
"So what if they do?" Grumbled Grantaire as he passed, hauling a wagon wheel with his wine bottle stuck into the crook of his arm. "As long as there are dogs to bark, there will always be fleas to bite them."  
Prouvaire and Lesgles looked at each other, making no sense of what Grantaire had said.  
"They're going to do what they think is right." Lesgles said, more to Prouvaire than Grantaire.  
Marius was heading back to the tavern to get more chairs when he saw someone climb through the barricade who did not belong there.  
  
**Eponine**  
  
I crouched in the shadows of the street adjacent to Rue de Villette, a long overcoat hanging around my thin shoulders and my dirty brown hair tucked into a cap that I had tucked low over my eyes. The sun was going down. I watched anxiously as the students, Marius included, started their fervent work on the misshapen hunk of metal and wood that was the barricade Gavroche had told me about. Behind it, nearly obstructed from view, was the tavern that the students were obviously using as a headquarters.  
Seeing my perfect opportunity, I made a dash for the barricade. Their leader, wearing a coat of red and gold-that must be Enjolras, I supposed, from what Gavroche had said-had just gone back to his work after speaking briefly with the students. I made an attempt to hide myself in the crowd, but Marius spotted me anyway. I found that I was unable to tear away my gaze. He walked toward me with a reproving glare.  
"Why, 'little boy', what's this I see? He asked mockingly while pulling the cap off of my head, letting all of the dark hair spill out over my shoulders. "God, Eponine! The things that you do."  
I held my ground, feeling my cheeks redden. "I'm not stupid. I know that this is hardly a place for me. Even still I'd much rather be with you."  
"Come now, Eponine. Get out of here before all the trouble starts. Get out while you can, you could get shot!" said Marius.  
I could not help but laugh nervously. "I've got you all worried now, haven't I? That proves you like me quite a lot." I said with a smile.  
Marius sighed and shook his head hopelessly. Then a look of hope came over his face. "I know of a way you can help me. Oh, you are the answer to my prayer!" he reached into a pocket and pulled out an envelope. "Please, could you take this letter to Cosette?"  
I felt my smile fall, feeling as though I had just been shot point- blank with a carbine. I blinked and grabbed the letter from his hand, then turned and started walking away without a further word.  
It was not until I was far from the barricades that I stopped and turned. "Little you know," I growled. "Little you care!" Taking a deep breath, I figured I might lose my voice at all the screaming I was doing. Not that it mattered anyway. No one had heard my desperate cry. It seemed that everyone was preparing for the fight that was to come and had locked themselves in their homes, safe and warm. I was the only one who dared walk the streets alone. Fighting back the tears of anguish welling in my eyes, I looked at the envelope in my hand. I was simply marked, 'Cosette, 55 Rue Plumet'. /What a lovesick pupp/y, I thought bitterly. He didn't even know her surname. How quaint.  
I continued walking to Rue Plumet. When I got to number fifty-five, I rattled loudly on the gate. And waited.  
From out of the darkness appeared an ageing man, whom I recognized as the one I'd seen in the streets the other day, the one my father had tried to rob. This was the man who had come to my father's inn in Montfermeil all those years ago and had paid fifteen hundred francs to take away Cosette. Quite a sum, but not quite worth the subject, I mused silently.  
"I have a letter to deliver, Monsieur. It's addressed to your daughter, Cosette." I said. The man continued to stare at me with those sad, ageless eyes, eyes that had seen everything and yet asked nothing of anyone. "It's from a boy at the barricades, sir." I continued slowly. "The one in the Rue de Villette."  
"Give that letter to me, my boy." He said, holding out his wrinkled hand through the bars to take the letter. I did not give it.  
"He said to give it to Cosette." I said darkly. /Why am I doing this? Why do I care so much for his petty, lovesick troubles?/  
"You have my word, son, that Cosette shall know what the letter contains." The man said. I handed of the letter between the bars and watched as he started to dig through his coat pockets. "Tell the young man..." he paused briefly, glancing up at the sky the way old people do when they are trying to do too many things at once. "That she will read it tomorrow. Here is for your trouble." He held out a hand and dropped a coin into my palm. A gold Napoleon, I realized with a shock. Perhaps Montpanasse was right, perhaps the old man did have a fortune put away..."Go carefully now and stay out of sight. There's plenty of danger out there in the streets."  
I nodded and started away. The old man turned from the gate and disappeared into the darkness. Walking aimlessly, I slipped the coin into my pocket and pulled the hat off of my head. I felt tears spring to my eye and I sat down on the curbside dejectedly.  
"Marius, I hate you." I muttered, knowing fully that he was too far away to hear. I didn't care. I wanted to hear the words for myself, if anything. "Do you hear it? You're blind!" My fingers closed around a stone from the gutter and I hurled it away, watching until it faded away into the darkness of the street. I felt so helpless, just sitting there all alone. "Why can't you see me?"  
I stopped and put my head down, pulling in a ragged breath. I hugged my knees and sat there for a long time, sobbing unabashedly for a long time.  
I looked up in the direction of the barricade. The sun was nearly set now, the streets getting dark.  
For a few minutes longer, I sat there and waited until a thought came to mind. /I'll make him see me.....I'll be with him even if he doesn't notice. I'll make him see me even if it kills me!/  
  
=========  
  
A/N: To my reviewer! Hehe, sorry I took out the palaver line. It seemed too.songish? Maybe, to me. At least later on there's whole songs in there...But I looked up the word for you, and it means: 1. a long parley (there's some Jack Sparrow for ya) between persons of different cultures or levels of sophistication. 2. conference, discussion. 3. idle talk. 4. misleading or beguiling speech. Interesting huh? And I'm glad you liked the Marius line, I wanted to make him appear as vulnerable as possible, guess it worked! 


	5. Little People

**Les Amis d'ABC**  
  
Marius gazed in awe at the completed barricade. He and his friends had done that, somehow.  
Gavroche had been running back and forth from the barricade to the empty streets. The Garde Nationale was on its way, he had reported last.  
"Let them come in their legions and they'll be met." Marius had said in reply.  
Enjolras was preparing the flag, tying the red shroud to a pole that someone had brought down from the attic of the tavern. "Have faith in yourselves, in our cause." He told them as he tied a second knot onto the pole.  
"Let's give 'em a screwing they'll not soon forget!" said Grantaire.  
Combeffere was passing muskets around. "This is where it begins," he said to Courfeyrac.  
Enjolras climbed up the barricade to secure the red flag in place, right at the summit where it could easily be seem both from the courtyard and from the empty street adjacent. "Let them come if they dare." He announced. "We'll be ready for them!"  
He had barely gotten to the bottom when a voice, amplified by a loud- hailer, rang out from the street adjacent.  
"You at the barricade, listen up! No one is coming to help you fight. Give up all your guns or face death!"  
The students listened to the message with confident grins on their faces.  
"Damn their warnings, and damn all of their lies! It ends today!" Enjolras shouted.  
Joly, sitting sentry near the top of the barricade, suddenly stood up. "He's back!" he said. Everyone turned their eyes to him as he extended his hand over the edge of the barricade and pulled up the gray- haired stranger who had gone off to spy for them. They all rushed to the base of the barricade, eager to hear the news.  
"Listen to this, my friends!" said the old man when they had all gathered around him, offering a chair. "I've been to their lines, counted each and every man. Better be warned, though. Our danger is very real! We will surely need cunning to bring them down."  
"Have faith, brother." Said Enjolras, patting his shoulder. "If you know their movements it will be easy to spoil their games."  
"I managed to overhear their plans, and they will not attack tonight!" The students looked at each other in surprise. "I'm guessing that they intent to starve us out before starting a proper fight. They are going to concentrate all of their forces in one spot, and attack on the right."  
Suddenly Gavroche ran to the front, pushing past Prouvaire and Lesgles to stand right in front of the man.  
"Liar!" he shouted.  
The students all stared at little Gavroche, wondering what he was getting at.  
"Good evening, my fine man. Isn't it a lovely evening?" said the boy, looking around at everyone. "I know this man, my friends. His name's Inspector Javert!"  
There was a sudden outburst of movement as the Inspector tried to escape, but Courfeyrac and Feuilly got to him first. Javert didn't move as a loaded carbine was leveled at his face.  
Gavroche continued on, smiling smugly. "So don't believe a words that he's said, 'cause you know none of it's true. This just goes to show what little people really can do!" He laughed and broke into a playful, mocking song:  
"Little people know, when little people fight,  
we may look easy pickings but we've got some bite!  
So never kick a dog, because he's just a pup!  
We'll fight like twenty armies and we won't give up!  
So you'd better run for cover when the pup grows up!"  
And with that, Gavroche slammed one fist into the crook of his elbow, punching the air upwards toward the Inspector with a look of satisfied anger on his face.  
Combeffere had brought a length of rope and threw it over the Inspector to Courfeyrac, and the two of them tied him to the chair.  
Grantaire clapped Gavroche on the shoulder. "Bravo, little Gavroche!" he said, glaring at Javert. "I knew you had the smarts."  
Prouvaire looked at Enjolras. "So what now? What do we do with this snake in the grass?"  
Enjolras leaned on his carbine, considering. "When you've finished tying him up, take him to the tavern in there. We'll decide what to do with him later." He replied coldly, staring at the spy the entire time.  
Courfeyrac gave the rope a rather violent tug. "Let's just take the bastard out to the back and shoot his brains out!" he snarled.  
"We'll see the devil dance then!" Feuilly added.  
"You'd have done the same, Inspector, if we'd given you the chance." said Lesgles.  
Inspector Javert remained cool as he looked around at all of the students. "Shoot me now or later, every schoolboy to his sport. Death to each and every traitor, I say!"  
Combeffere cocked back his musket threateningly. "We might not all survive this, but at least there are some things that never die." He remarked quietly.  
"What's the difference whether you die a schoolboy, or a policeman, or a spy even?" Grantaire sneered.  
"Take him back to the tavern!" Enjolras said loudly. "We have work to do!"  
Courfeyrac and Feuilly had barely returned from escorting the prisoner into the tavern when the sound of gunshots rang out in the street adjacent.  
Everyone looked at each other. All of the students were behind the barricade and accounted for. What was the Garde Nationale shooting at?  
Enjolras nodded to Joly. He took off at once, returning to his position at the sentry post, careful not to be seen.  
"There's someone climbing the barricade." He reported. "A boy, I think.looks like he's injured."  
  
=========  
  
A/N: Yaay for reviewers! Thanks guys, you're helping me make my grade!  
  
Snoggingwithdrawl: Thanks! I'm glad you like it, I'll take a gander at your stuff as well!  
  
Tattered Sparrow: Eek, I just realized I had July in there too. Thanks for pointing that out. *fixes*  
  
Pamplemousse: Empty chairs and empty tables, good god I never thought of that. And thanks too for pointing out the July thing.dunno what I was thinking when I wrote that. o.O 


	6. A Little Fall of Rain

**Eponine**  
  
When I returned to the Rue de Villette, the barricade was complete. A red flag adorned the top. Across the street was another smaller barricade, this one obviously belonging to the Garde Nationale.  
Maybe I could climb over the barricade without them seeing me...  
I made a mad dash for it and started climbing. /They can't see me/, I thought with a careless grin. /They aren't watching!/  
But suddenly the air was alive with the sound of bullets. Frightened, I ducked down and fell flat against the barricade.  
The gunfire stopped. I quickly scrambled on, my heart beating so painfully fast that I thought it would simply burst out of my chest. A bullet ricocheted off of something very close to me, sending a spray of shattered wood into the thick air. I stopped and looked across the street at the Garde Nationale.  
"Please..." I whimpered, falling flat again. I held out my hand to shield my face from the bullets.  
They didn't stop. /Marius.where is Marius?/ "Marius, help me!"  
But my cry was lost, transformed into a scream as I felt and saw my extended hand nearly explode. I doubled over, gasping for breath. My insides felt as though they were on fire.  
More determined and afraid now, I looked up and forced myself to keep climbing. I was almost there! I was so afraid...but they had only shot my hand, I told myself. No matter how badly it hurt, it could be fixed, easy.  
I could see the top of the barricade. There was someone there, but it wasn't Marius. I didn't care.  
"There's someone climbing the barricade," They said. "A boy, I think.looks like he's injured."  
They held out a hand to pull me over. The gunfire had stopped. Using the hand that wasn't blown away, I allowed myself to be pulled up.  
Once on the other side, I thrust my bloody hand-what was left of it, anyway-into the pocket of my coat. I searched the ground below for Marius. People were staring at me as I slid down the side of the barricade haphazardly. So much pain...  
"Eponine?"  
I turned. Marius! He was looking frightened and surprise as he ran to me.  
"Good God! What are you doing back here, 'Ponine? Have you no fear, or are you just stupid?"  
I was struggling to stand up now. "I took the letter like you asked me to." My head started to spin. "Her father took it...but said he'd...give it to her...I don't think I can stand up anymore..."  
My legs collapsed from under me and I fell into Marius' arms. I hardly noticed the students drawing near to get a better look. Marius guided me gently to the ground.  
"Eponine, what is it?" he asked quietly. I winced, feeling him put a hand against my side. "You're hurt, Eponine...Oh, God...it's everywhere!"  
It was not good, I could tell. Marius' hands were wet with my blood.  
But...it didn't hurt, I realized. I couldn't feel a thing-no pain at all! Marius was there, holding me, his arms around me. It was all going to be all right, I told myself.  
"Don't worry, M'sieur Marius...I'll be all right. You're here, and that's all I need to know..." I murmured.  
"Hush," Marius whispered. He looked up at someone and reached out with one hand, took their coat and wrapped it around me protectively.  
"You're keeping me safe and close..." I whispered, looking up at him. The edges of my vision began to get fuzzy, so that all I could see was Marius. "Dear, sweet Marius..."  
"You're going to live, 'Ponine," I heard him say.  
I shook my head. Didn't he see that it was all going to be all right? "Just hold me like you were...and let it be...don't let go."  
Suddenly the crowd around us parted, and there was little Gavroche.  
"'Ponine?" he squeaked. "Is that you, 'Ponine?" Someone took him by the shoulders and pulled him back.  
I couldn't breathe. A sudden fear gripped me and I reached for Marius's hand, just to make sure he was still there. I felt him squeeze my hand.  
"Shh." he whispered. His voice sounded so far away! "I'm here."  
He clutched my hand and I closed my eyes against the sudden feeling that I was falling away. I was falling...and then...  
  
**Marius**  
  
"There's someone climbing the barricade," Joly said. "A boy, I think...looks like he's injured."  
I glanced sidelong at Enjolras and hurried closer to the barricade to get a better look. I watched Joly pull the 'boy' over. He looked around frantically and started sliding toward the bottom. I couldn't tell if I knew who it was or not.  
Then I remembered where I'd seen that cap before.  
"Eponine?"  
She turned to me and her face lit up. I ran over to her, worried.  
"Good God! What are you doing back here, 'Ponine? Have you no fear, or are you just stupid?"  
She looked like she was injured; she was swaying back and forth just standing there. "I took the letter like you asked me to...her father took it but said he'd...give it to her...I don't think I can stand up anymore..."  
Suddenly she collapsed and fell into my arms. My friends all gave a collective, low gasp and rushed closer. I guided her to the ground gently.  
"What is it, 'Ponine?" I whispered. I put a hand against her side, realizing that it was bloodstained and soaking wet. She winced. "You're hurt, Eponine...Oh, God...it's everywhere!"  
It was not good, I could tell. I bit my lip, realizing that she had been shot in the side, somehow.  
Eponine had put on an ethereal, other-worldly look, the one that people who are near death wear. Her eyes were glazing over. "Don't worry, M'sieur Marius...I'll be all right. You're here, and that's all I need to know..." she murmured.  
"Hush," I whispered. I looked up at Feuilly, who was kneeling and holding out his coat to me. I took it and wrapped it around Eponine.  
"You're keeping me safe and close..." she went on. She was looking up at me, but I had the feeling she couldn't quite see me anyway, the way her eyes were darting about. "Dear, sweet Marius..."  
"You're going to live, 'Ponine," I said firmly, hoping that she could hear me. I ignored the fact that my stomach had done a flip when I heard her loving words. My throat had started to constrict and tears were building around my eyes. It was my fault, I realized. She had returned for me. And now she was dying, shot for a cause she didn't even believe in.  
Eponine shook her head. "Just hold me like you were...and let it be...don't let go."  
Suddenly the crowd surrounding us parted, and there was little Gavroche.  
"'Ponine?" he squeaked. "Is that you, 'Ponine?" Prouvaire took him by the shoulders and pulled him back.  
Eponine grabbed my hand suddenly. I swallowed and squeezed her hand, knowing that the end was near. "Shh..." I whispered. "I'm here."  
She closed her eyes, gasping for breath. /No,/ I thought as I watched her breathe her last breath. Her head lolled to the side gently, resting against the crook of my elbow as if only in peaceful slumber. /Why her? Why not me?/  
I realized that I too had had my eyes closed, and someone had their arm on my shoulder. I opened my eyes and looked up. It was Enjolras.  
"She...she was your friend..." he said. It was apparent he didn't know what to say otherwise.  
"Eponine," I said, more bitterly than I had intended. "Her name was Eponine. So unafraid...of everything."  
"Then we fight in her name." said Combeffere. I didn't look at him.  
"Her death won't be for nothing." Prouvaire offered.  
"We won't betray her, Marius." Lesgles added. I glanced up at him. /I already have..... /  
Lesgles and Prouvaire moved towards me, patting my shoulders and then taking Eponine gently from my arms. I didn't want to let go, but I let her lifeless hand slip from my own as they carried her toward the tavern slowly.  
I sat there a moment, absently and futilely scraping blood off of my hands. Enjolras patted my shoulder again and moved away, motioning for the others to do the same. I listened to them all walk away slowly. Gavroche appeared, looking down at me for a moment and then plopping down in front of me. I raised my eyes to him. The boy had a very sour look on his face, and he had a hard time meeting my eyes. I had the feeling he was trying very hard not to cry.  
"She wouldn't've come here if I hadn't told her about it." He said quietly, putting his hands in his lap. I raised an eyebrow, coming very close to being amused-he thought it was all his fault.  
"She would have come." I said.  
Gavroche shrugged his shoulders and took off his cap. "You know what she said to me?" he asked. I shook my head. "She asked me where the barricade was gonna be at. And then I told her. And then I asked her why. And she told me that she would know where to come and get my body."  
I stared long and hard at the boy, biting the inside of my lip. "She was a brave girl, Gavroche. Much braver than I."  
Gavroche gave a sniff. "I wish she hadn't been so brave, then." Before I could stop him, he had run off towards the tavern.  
  
====== A/N: I happened to like this chappie, a lot. I wrote it all within a half an hour in the library one day, I was so enthralled...lol. Let me know how you like (or dislike) the end of this...I changed it from what I previously had, it was really cruddy and I didn't know what else to write.  
  
Pamplemousse: Nope, I never thought about the Empty Chairs thing. Empty chairs, empty head...hehe. And yep, I just updated the Ariadne fic. Would have done it about 2 days ago but my computer froze right as I was trying to do it and I never got a chance to go back. Blasphemous thing! You going to finish the Noëlle story or you gonna leave us all hanging there in breathless agony?? Hehe...  
  
Snogging: Glad you liked it! I like the end of the last chapter, an almost- cliff hanger...'cause you pretty much know what's going to happen anyway. Indeed, what an evil fic that would be! Hehe... 


	7. Drink With Me

A/N: I got the French conceptual album of Les Miz for Christmas today and noted in there the spelling of Les Amis...so I'm changing it! Heh..  
  
Before the chappie, to my reviewers! Snogging: *wipes brow* Whew, that's a relief. Just kind of threw together the ending with Gavroche because the one I had was so horrible.....maybe to humor myself I'll put it up here one day. Pamplemousse: Aaagh, the aaaagonny...j/k. I think I'm the exact opposite of you; I happen to like Eponine, which is why I spent so much time on that chapter...I'm also a hopeless romantic, so that would explain why!  
  
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**Les Amis de l'A.B.C.**  
  
The students sat in relatively tense silence for almost another hour. The Garde Nationale was biding its time, apparently. Perhaps the spy, Javert, had been telling the truth-perhaps they were going to wait through the night.  
Joly was still on watch, his musket in his lap. He had his chin in his palms, elbows on his knees as he watched the street adjacent.  
Marius was sitting on the curbside rather dejectedly. Gavroche had fallen asleep with his head against Marius's shoulder.  
The barricade was quiet.  
Suddenly Joly stood up, cocking back his musket. "There's a man in uniform coming near!" he shouted.  
Everyone looked at him, picking up their own guns. Marius stayed seated where he was, putting an arm around Gavroche.  
A man appeared at the top of the barricade near Joly, his arms up in a signal of peace. He was wearing the same red and blue coat as the soldiers of the Garde Nationale wore. Marius recognized him faintly-the students all called him Monsieur Leblanc, whom they always saw sitting in the park with his daughter.  
He was Cosette's father.  
"What brings you here?" Joly asked, not lowering his gun.  
"I come here as a volunteer." The old man replied calmly, watching Joly and wisely not putting down his arms, as if to show that he was not armed.  
"Approach and show your face!" Enjolras called from the ground. Monsieur Leblanc did as he was told, and made his way slowly to the bottom of the barricade.  
"You wear an army uniform," noted Feuilly.  
"That's why they let me through." Said the old man.  
"You've got some years behind you." Grantaire muttered.  
"And there is much that I can do to help."  
Enjolras studied the man for a moment and then took his shoulder and led him toward the tavern. Grantaire and the others followed, eager to see if he was really telling the truth. Enjolras pointed in the open door at Inspector Javert, who was still tied to the chair with his back to the door.  
  
"You see that man in there?" Enjolras said. Monsieur Leblanc nodded serenely.  
"A volunteer, so he said, like you!" Grantaire said threateningly.  
"But he's a spy. Calls himself Javert!" Combeffere added. The old man studied the prisoner, a look of familiarity coming over his face.  
"He's in for it, too." Said Grantaire.  
Enjolras had opened his mouth to reply when suddenly Joly gave a yell.  
"They're getting ready to attack!"  
The students all rushed to their weapons. Enjolras stayed behind and retrieved a musket for the old man, and shoved it into his hands. "Take this, use it as you will. If you shoot us in the back, you'll not live to tell." He said. The old man nodded, and together they ran toward the barricade.  
  
**Marius**  
  
I had barely enough time to load my gun and cock it back when the first shots rang out from across the street.  
"Platoon of sappers advancing on us!" Joly said as he took cover himself.  
"Everyone behind the barricade!" Enjolras shouted, finding a place to put the muzzle of his carbine in. I was intent on watching the street adjacent. The Garde Nationale was lining up; I could see the muzzles of their guns all in a straight row on the top of their smaller blockade.  
/"Fire!"/ Enjolras yelled even as he pulled his own trigger.  
I pulled the trigger and felt my eardrums nearly explode with the blast of gunfire around me. The sound was deafening. The air was instantly filled with smoke and smelled faintly of sulfur. I was aware of the Garde Nationale firing back, but none of their bullets made it through the towering fortification we had built.  
I had just ducked aside to reload my musket when, seemingly from out of nowhere, a bullet came screaming down and smashed into a wooden table next to me, sending splinters of wood into the air. I flinched, pulling up an arm to protect my face from the debris. Next to me, Monsieur Leblanc also jumped aside, whirling around to find the location of the hidden assailant.  
The gunfire was still going on all around us. Searching the buildings around us, I ran for little Gavroche and pulled him down. "Sniper!" I yelled, hoping to be loud enough that the others would hear me and take cover as well.  
Another bullet came out from the sky, this one hitting close to Monsieur Leblanc. He did not flinch, though, only gazed through the smoky sky and lifted up his musket. He took a few moments in gazing around, searching still for the sniper.  
Before he could fire, yet another bullet came. Enjolras, standing next to Monsieur Leblanc, jumped back suddenly and dropped his carbine, pulling a bloodied hand towards his body. The old man fired towards a deserted building across the street. It was within plain view; we had not built up the barricade on that side of the street. I watched over my shoulder as first a musket toppled out of a window, followed shortly by a limp body.  
The gunfire started to die down.  
  
**Les Amis de l'A.B.C.**  
  
Lesgles gave up a jubilant cheer. "See how they run away, the cowards!" he shouted. The other students all lifted up their muskets in victory. The Garde Nationale retreated behind their blockade, not bothering to bring their dead with them.  
"By God, we've won the day!" Grantaire said.  
Enjolras shook his head, wrapping a handkerchief around his wounded hand. "They'll be back again to attack once more." He muttered. He looked over at Monsieur Leblanc and approached, humbled. "For what you have done for all of us, I will thank you, Monsieur, when this battle is finally won."  
The old man shook his head. "Give me no thanks. There is something that you can do."  
Enjolras nodded slowly. "If it is in my power."  
"Let me take care of the spy for you. I will ensure he will not get away."  
"Do what you will with him. He belongs to you." Said Enjolras, patting Monsieur Leblanc on the shoulder with his good hand. The older man turned back to the tavern and Enjolras returned to the students. "The enemy may be regrouping and will be ready to attack again by morning. Hold yourselves in readiness."  
From the silence behind the tavern there was the sudden sound of a gunshot.  
"The prisoner," Enjolras remarked. "Worry not about him now." A round of dulled, somber applause went through the crowd of students. Enjolras nodded. "Courfeyrac, you take the watch for Joly. They shouldn't attack until it's light again. Everyone else, stay awake. We must be alert and ready for the final battle. No one is to sleep this night!"  
The crowd started to disperse and Enjolras caught the gaze of Marius, who had returned to his glum post on the curbside. He sighed. "Marius, rest."  
Grantaire and Feuilly went into the tavern just as Monsieur Leblanc returned. The other students started to settle down for the night, their guns close by. Grantaire and Feuilly returned with a tray of glasses and a bottle of wine from within the tavern. The students crowded together in a circle, passing around glasses and the wine. Even Gavroche was allowed a drink. Only Enjolras, Marius and Monsieur Leblanc refrained from joining in the somber festivities. Feuilly held up his glass and started up a drinking song.  
"Drink with me, to days gone by.  
Sing with me, the songs we knew!" Prouvaire added the next verse, holding up his own glass.  
"Here's to pretty girls who went to our heads." Joly took a swig of his and sang,  
"Here's to witty girls who went to our beds!" He winked and everyone had a well-deserved laugh. They all joined in then.  
"Here's to them,  
And here's to us."  
Grantaire had already downed half of his glass.  
"Drink with me, to days gone by  
Can it be you fear to die?  
Will the world remember you when you fall?  
Could it be your death  
means nothing at all?  
Is your life just one more lie?" The students toasted each other and sang all together:  
"Drink with me, to days gone by,  
to the life that used to be.  
At the shrine of friendship,  
never say die!  
Let the wind of friendship never run dry!  
Here's to you,  
and here's to me." 


	8. Little People Reprise

A/N: The end of this chapter is rather dramatic, better to do reviewer stuff now! Pamplemousse: Yep, I got the FCA for X-mas. Still working on memorizing the lyrics, hehe. Got it to help with my French skills. And the Rabid Javert is perfect.so maniacal and insane! Muahahaha! I love 'Noir ou Blanc'.  
  
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**Les Amis de L'A.B.C.**  
  
Sunrise dawned a bright pink, silhouetting the clouds against the pale sky and spreading light behind the barricade. Enjolras had advised them not to sleep, but few had heeded that warning. Most of the students had fallen asleep after their song. Grantaire still had the wine bottle clutched in his fist, but he was dead asleep, leaning against a chair. Marius had fallen into a restless sleep, and Gavroche had curled up next to him. It appeared that only Enjolras and Courfeyrac had remained awake, though the latter was fighting his heavy eyelids. Monsieur Leblanc was awake, though it appeared he was not; he had his head resting in the crook of his elbow as he leaned on a crate. His eyes were alert, though, watching the students as they rested.  
Enjolras rose and went about the circle of sleeping students, nudging them each with his foot. "The dawn is here," he said as he walked through the circle, offering words to anyone who was awake enough to listen and comprehend.  
Combeffere yawned and sat up, poking Joly and then Feuilly, prodding them into consciousness. Prouvaire had to roughly shake Grantaire to awaken him. Lesgles covered his face with his arm against the light and groaned, and then seemed to realize where he was and sat up, blinking.  
"Come on, get up." Courfeyrac shouted, watching from atop his sentry post. "If I've got to sit up here without a wink of rest, the lot of you can get up as well."  
Enjolras approached the still-comatose Marius and nudged his shoulder more gently than he had the others. Marius opened one eye and looked up at Enjolras, his body silhouetted against the sunlight in his eyes. "Dawn," Enjolras murmured as he started moving away. Marius nodded and pulled himself into a sitting position, running a hand through his disheveled hair. He glanced over at Gavroche, who was curled up with his cap pulled low over his eyes. Marius smiled a little and pulled off the cap, ruffling his hair. The boy groaned and put his hands over his head, pulling himself into a tighter ball.  
"Come on," Marius said as he rose to his feet.  
Slowly the students pushed the sleep from their eyes and turned to Enjolras, who had started to pace. It was clear that Enjolras had spent the night in deep contemplative thought. Monsieur Leblanc watched from outside the circle of students.  
"The people have not yet heard. We are abandoned, my friends, by those people who still live in fear. And yet we can not abandon those that can not hear our calling for justice." Enjolras stopped his pacing and looked through the crowd of his friends. "Let us not waste lives. Anyone who wishes to go from here may do so without repercussion."  
The students looked at each other in tense silence. Feuilly was the first to speak. He picked up his empty glass and held it up, going to the tune of the song they had sung the night previous.  
"Drink with me, to days gone by,  
sing with me, the songs we knew..."  
The rest seemed to catch on and lifted their own empty glasses.  
"At the shrine of friendship,  
raise your glass high.  
Let the wine of friendship  
never run dry.  
If I die, I die with you..."  
Enjolras smiled a truly grateful smile. Marius caught his friend's gaze and grinned. The students all rose to their feet, full of renewed energy and life.  
"Then how do we stand, Feuilly? Make your report." Enjolras said.  
"We've guns enough, but our supply of ammunition is running out."  
Marius moved toward his friend. "Let me go out to the streets. Think of all the bodies just lying about, with all the ammunition to be had!"  
Enjolras gave him a hard glare. "I can't let you go. It'll be too much of a chance."  
"And the same is true for any man risking his life in this barricade!" Marius shot back.  
Monsieur Leblanc, overhearing the conversation, stepped forward. "Let me go instead. He's nothing but a boy, while I am old and have nothing to fear of death."  
But little Gavroche was already taking matters into his own hands. Grabbing a basket, he dashed out to the barricade and started climbing. "You'll need somebody quicker. I volunteer!"  
"Come back, Gavroche!" Enjolras yelled, running for the boy. The students and Monsieur Leblanc dashed for the barricade, watching the boy climb up. "Don't you dare!"  
"Someone pull him down!" Joly cried.  
Courfeyrac, already at the top, made a scramble for Gavroche and missed, the boy slipping through his fingers like water. "They'll see you, Gavroche!" he warned as he watched the boy descend the other side of the barricade.  
The boy didn't even pause to look back. "They're probably not even up yet!"  
Enjolras and Marius were the first to reach the top. Gavroche was nearly to the bottom.  
"Ce ne pas le peine!" yelled Lesgles, joining them.  
The boy looked up and tipped his hat, grinning impishly. "Look at me! I'm nearly there!"  
A gunshot rang out. Birds scattered from the trees, taking up agitated flight into the morning sun.  
Gavroche gave a start and crouched down with his basket at the nearest body. The movement behind the barricade stopped dead as the students and Monsieur Leblanc lined up at the top, watching in tense silence.  
Gavroche was not phased, though. He went on piling bullets into his basket and singing the childish song he had sung to Inspector Javert.  
"Little people know, when little people fight,  
we may look easy pickings but we've got some bite-"  
Another gunshot ripped through the air and this time Gavroche stumbled back. The barricade went deathly silent. It seemed that no one was daring to even pull in a breath. The boy went on stubbornly, pulling himself to the next body and continuing his song.  
"So never kick a dog, because he's just a pup-"  
He fell again as another bullet found its way to his body. The students all seemed to lean forward, holding their breaths. Gavroche somehow continued on.  
"We'll fight...like twenty armies...and...we won't give up...."  
He paused, the pain running a shudder through his small body. Finally he dropped down to his hands and knees and sobbed.  
"So you better...run for cover...when...the pup..."  
Suddenly he reared up again, as if finding some strength within himself, and pointed in the direction that the bullets were coming from.  
"Grows-"  
The last note of his brave song left his torn throat with a pitiful squeak as the last bullet hit the boy with such force that he flipped over and lay still, propped up against the body of a dead Garde Nationale soldier. His bloody fingers fell limp and the bullets rolled out onto the bloodstained street, the clink ringing out a painfully loud note in the ears of the onlookers.  
"Mon Dieu." whispered Enjolras, staring wide-eyed at the street. His knuckles were clenched hard around the pole of the red flag.  
Monsieur Leblanc leaned back with a groan. All of the others still had not moved, unable to find the courage.  
Suddenly Marius rose up over the edge of the barricade. "/Vive la Republique!/" He threw an angry fist into the air and shook it in the direction of the Garde Nationale. Monsieur Leblanc grabbed him and pulled him down over the protective edge of the barricade even as a bullet ricocheted off of the top edge of the fortification.  
The students all winced and pulled themselves down, tearing their teary eyes away from the scene in the street, the sight of the dead boy who had been so full of life just moments before.  
Enjolras leaned his back up against something, clenching his hands together in anger. No one seemed willing to be the first to go back to the ground.  
From off in the distance, the voice of a Garde Nationale soldier rang out, amplified by a loud-hailer. "You at the barricade, listen to this! The people of Paris are asleep in their beds. You have no chance! Why throw your lives away?"  
The students turned their gazes to Enjolras. His icy eyes were angry and fixated at nothing, simply staring off in the distance. Suddenly he pushed himself away from the barricade, picking his way carefully down to the bottom. The rebels watched him as he ran to his gun and held it up.  
"If we are to die, then let us do it facing our foes. Let's make them bleed while we have the chance!" he said.  
Combeffere followed his lead, rising to his feet and running to the bottom to retrieve his own carbine. They all followed his lead, flocking to the bottom.  
"Make them pay for every man," snarled Courfeyrac, cocking back his musket.  
Enjolras pulled off his coat and then propped the muzzle of his gun into a crevice in the barricade. "Let all the others rise up to take our place, until our earth is /free/!" 


	9. Empty Chairs at Empty Tables

A/N: Pamplemousse: Yep, I have the CSR. Best thing I ever spent 50 bucks on. (almost didn't have enough actually...got scared) It's my precioussss. *ahem* First time it skipped I almost killed. Anyway, I love Anthony Warlow as Enjy. He's incredible. Not to say Michael Maguire isn't good, but he's just sooo much better...  
  
So, this is it. But not really. I'm writing an extended "Red and Black", so watch for that in the next few...days, weeks, who knows. Hehe...Enjoy! And if you don't cry at the end I'll come after you! No, not really, I just felt like saying that. *shrug*  
  
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**Marius**  
  
I could feel my hands shaking-whether with fear or incredible anger, I wasn't sure-as I loaded my gun. The others were lining up with their weapons. No one spoke.  
Through a hole in the barricade, I could see the Garde Nationale. They were lining their muzzles up against the top of their small fortification, just like they had during the last skirmish. This time, though, they sent more troops out into the streets. /Many/ more troops.  
I paused the loading of my gun and stared. Combeffere stood next to me, and out of the corner of my eye I saw him stiffen, watching the soldiers line up in neat, stationed rows.  
"A Dieu vat..." Combeffere whispered. My heart began to pound.  
They raised their guns in preparation to fire, and I realized I had not finished loading my own.  
"Prepare yourselves!" Enjolras said suddenly.  
Not a moment too soon, I mused silently, as the Garde Nationale fired. The air was full of smoke and bullets. I ducked to the side to continue loading my gun.  
I fired off a shot. The street was so full of smoke that I could not see the soldiers at all. /This is it,/ I realized. /That's Death staring at us from that smoke./  
Prepared to take death as it came to me, I reloaded swiftly and fired again out into the foggy mess of bullets and smoke. We could at least stand here for a little while before they overtook us.  
Combeffere was the first to fall. I flinched as the bullet came dangerously close to me, but went for him instead. I watched him stumble back, a hand over his chest and his face contorted in pain. I wanted to go to him, but turned and fired again.  
Time slowed itself. The report of the musket made no noise at all, the recoil of the butt caused no pain against my already bruised shoulder, my ears were drowned by the surreal sense of death that was descending upon us all.  
Around me, my friends started to fall.  
Feuilly went down fast, clutching his throat. He was dead before he hit the ground. Courfeyrac was already lying bleeding on the top of the barricade, his fingers limp around his musket. Somehow in the fray, the red flag that had once meant so much to us became dislodged. Through the smoke and haze I saw Enjolras look up and run for it, his mouth open in a desperate yell I couldn't hear. Joly and Lesgles went down together, the force of one bullet ripping through both of their bodies. I was intent on watching Enjolras. He got to the top and picked free the flag, and defiantly started waving it back and forth in a mocking gesture to the Garde Nationale. Grantaire slumped down on the barricade. Prouvaire had fallen atop of him.  
I yelled out to Enjolras even as I watched him get hit once, twice, a third time. My scream was dulled in my own ears. Enjolras-my friend, mentor and leader-stumbled back a step but stubbornly waved the flag once more before slumping down on the flag pole and disappearing over the other side of the barricade, taking the tangled and torn flag with him.  
I started to run to him. Time suddenly reversed itself once more and I felt myself fall to the ground even as the bullet shot through my thigh. Gasping from the pain and struggling for breath, I rolled over, hoping for some salvation, and stared into the clear, glossy eyes of Feuilly. I had landed in a puddle of something thick and wet, which I realized was his blood. A strangled cry escaped my throat and I thought I was going to be sick.  
The edges of my vision started to blur. /Is this what Éponine felt?/ I had to wonder.  
Just as I was about to lose consciousness, I saw the silhouette of a body stoop over me, their arms reaching out to take me. I felt myself lifted from the ground even as I blacked out.  
  
~*~  
  
Two months.  
Has it really been that long? Surely not, it can't be possible...a week, perhaps...yesterday, wasn't it just yesterday when I held a dying Éponine in my arms, watched a little boy have the life shot from him? Enjolras...he was at the summit, protecting that red flag...red, for revolution. Just like Grantaire said...  
I looked up, drawing myself from the reverie, pulling myself from the thoughts that so often flew through my troubled mind. The hospital room was quiet and dark, the only light coming from the two taper candles on my table. Outside the window, I could only see darkness.  
There was only darkness today, and I was thankful for that at least. Darkness, and not the faces of my friends staring in at me, asking me why I had lived and they had all perished.  
"It wasn't my fault..." I mumbled, hardly aware of the words slipping from my lips. "I wanted to die there with you!" I slammed a hand on the table violently. The candles wobbled precariously and hot wax spilled onto the table and over my fingers. Desperate, I shouted out to the silence, "Why?"  
I calmed myself, realizing that I was shouting to the shadows again. Only the shadows, not Grantaire and Feuilly, not Gavroche and Lesgles. They weren't there anymore. They were dead, and I had to keep telling myself that. With a sigh I closed my eyes. There was Enjolras once more, waving that red flag defiantly, getting shot down, sliding down the side of the barricade to rest upon the torn flag.  
With an almost savage cry of utmost desperation I stood up. "Why? Why don't you leave me alone?" I whirled around to escape from the faces that were staring at me from the windows. I clutched my head with hands that were cold against my skin. "No! Don't ask me what your sacrifice was for! Don't ask me why you died and I didn't! I didn't ask for that!" I took a step and crumpled, falling helplessly to the floor, where their phantom shadows were leaning from the windows. The empty chairs in the corner of the room leered at me cynically. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry nothing's changed. It's all the same, Enjolras! Please, forgive me..."  
Suddenly, there was someone at my side. I looked up-it was Cosette. How long had she been there? Why hadn't I heard the door open?  
She knelt down beside me and smiled compassionately. "Oh, Marius." Her words were soft and comforting, her fingers warm as they smoothed the rumpled hair that was hanging over my eyes.  
"Cosette."  
She held out a hand and helped me up, allowing me to lean on her until I got back to my chair. She sat down next to me. "Every day, Marius, you're getting stronger, taking longer steps. The worst is over, they say."  
"Every day I wonder who it was that brought me here, back from the barricades." I said glumly. I took a quick, almost fearful glance at the window. The faces were receding, fading into the night.  
She put on a stern gaze. "Oh, Marius, don't think of that! With all these years ahead of us...I'm not going anywhere, and we will be together every day." She said.  
I stared at her for a moment. She had been there through it all, since the very first day I had come back from that horrible place. "Dear mademoiselle..." I whispered, taking her hand. She smiled.  
I glanced over my shoulder at the window. It was dark and empty. Just the way I wanted it. 


	10. Red and Black Revised

A/N: Okay, so really the point of this was to add a little bit more to my final product. I was originally going to write this in 1st person then decided it wouldn't work, so I changed it to 3rd person. Since there was all this other stuff that could be written about /before/ Marius got to the café, I decided to go back and add that. Hope you like this little extension. Most of the chapter is the original bit. It's just the beginning that is new.  
  
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**Les Amis de L'A.B.C.**  
  
The café Musain was quite empty.  
There were only two patrons that afternoon, one of which was Enjolras. He was hunched over a map of Paris, marked with several red pins. Next to it lay a paper full of incomprehensible scribbles and figures. Every so often he would look up at the other patron of the café, shake his head reprovingly, and perhaps scowl. Grantaire was slumped on a table nearby, dead asleep with his head on his arms. A bottle of wine, no doubt half-empty, sat lonely next to him. Enjolras didn't want him there; his snoring interrupted his concentration. But he couldn't kick him out-it was, after all, not his café. With a sigh he went back to work. A few minutes later the door opened. Enjolras recognized the voices as those of his friends, but he still did not look up. "I hear that at Notre-Dame they've already prepared sections," Combeferre said as he held open the door for the others. "And at Rue de Bac they're literally straining at the leash!" Feuilly added. Courfeyrac dropped his coat and hat on a chair. He moved towards Enjolras and slapped him on the back. The young man looked up rather grumpily. "Did you hear that, Enjolras? Students, and the workers...everyone, coming to our side." Courfeyrac said.  
"Indeed," Enjolras said as he leaned back. "Indeed, the time is near." He watched as everyone took their seats. Feuilly went to Grantaire and pounded a hand on the table, causing the drunkard to wake rather violently. He gave a start and looked around with bewilderment. Feuilly chuckled and patted his shoulder, then moved back to his own seat. Enjolras glanced around and frowned. "Where is Marius?"  
Combeferre had already pulled out his tablet, ready to jot down notes as they came to him. "Late again, no doubt." He remarked.  
Jean Prouvaire almost went to suck on the end of his pen and stopped himself, realizing that he was not using a quill. "He'd make a very good lover, you know." He said as he inspected the ink in the pen with one eye.  
"Marius?" Feuilly scoffed. He laughed and shook his head. "Surely not. The only love he has in his heart is for his country, just like Enjolras."  
"He's a dreamer, have no doubt about that." Prouvaire returned. Feuilly shrugged.  
Enjolras was half-listening. He had returned to staring at his map. "We'll start without him, then." he said without looking up. After another moment he stood up and rubbed his hands together, then put a foot on his chair. He looked over at Combeferre. "Who have you gathered today?"  
"Those near Notre-Dame, and a small section of workers near Rue de Bac."  
Enjolras nodded. "Good. They can feel the time drawing near, as well." He looked around. "Can you not feel it stirring the blood in your veins?" Those in the room looked at each other and nodded. "Yet, be cautious. Don't let the wine go to your brains." He nodded towards Grantaire. A laugh went through the room and Grantaire looked around aimlessly. "This is no jest, my friends. The army we shall fight is a dangerous foe, to be certain. They've got a number of men and arms that we'll never match. The little squalls of fighters we can handle, but the Garde Nationale will be harder to catch." He paused and brought his clasped hands up to his mouth, almost as if he were praying. "We need a sign. Something that will rally the people! Call them to arms. Bring them in line."  
The door creaked open and Marius slipped in. He immediately pressed himself against the back wall, hoping to not be noticed by his studious companions, all of whom were listening intently to whatever Enjolras was saying. He knew it must have been important, he could hear his voice from half-way down the street. But Enjolras, alert and wary as ever, spotted him even while he spoke.  
"Marius, you're late." He remarked, stepping down from his chair and wiping his palms on his coat.  
Naturally, all eyes turned to the pale Marius. He shook his head and started to go to a chair.  
"What's wrong with you today?" Joly asked from his cushioned chair. "You look as if you've just seen a ghost."  
"Here, have some wine and tell what's going on." Grantaire said, offering his half-empty bottle to Marius as he entered the room.  
Marius waved away the bottle and moved through the uneven maze of chairs and the occasional table. Pausing near Joly's chair, he was struck with some sudden inspiration, and turned on his heel to look back at Joly.  
"A ghost, you say?" he asked. The confused Joly nodded his head. "Perhaps.she was just like a ghost to me. One minute, she was there, and the next, gone!"  
Enjolras appeared to be paying no attention to the musings of Marius, having turned to the map on his table, but he was listening, and rolling his mind's eye. Joly and the others all looked at each other and nodded knowingly as Marius went on, muttering "she". Jean Prouvaire even went as far to as acknowledge Feuilly with a look of superiority.  
Grantaire rose from his seat. "I am agog, simply aghast! Why, is Marius, of all people, in love? I've never seen him 'ooh' and 'aah' so!" Marius ignored the obviously inebriated Grantaire, and instead crossed his arms and leaned against a table, falling into thoughts of the pretty girl. Grantaire wasn't finished. He climbed up on his chair with much drunken wobble. Combeferre and Feuilly, as well as the others, all jumped from their seats. "You talk of battles to be won, and he becomes like Don Ju- an!" Grantaire threw his hands up in a grand flourish, causing all the students to jump, fearing a fall. "It's quite better than an opera!" he sang.  
"Get down before you kill yourself!" Feuilly hissed, grabbing at Grantaire's flailing arms. He and Joly finally managed to pull him down and set him in his seat once more.  
Enjolras put his forehead in his hand and groaned. He waited patiently for the ruckus to die down once more. Marius was clearly paying no attention to any of it.  
Finally the noise died away, save for Grantaire chuckling to himself. Enjolras paced the front of the room.  
"As I was saying.before Marius found it in his heart to join us..we'll need something more to catch the Garde Nationale. We all need to decide, here and now, who we are. Are we simply rich little boys, fighting for the right to go to the opera? Have any of you, friends, any of you at all, asked yourselves of the price you'll be willing to pay?" He paused and picked up a large red shroud that was lying draped over a table, and held it up. "This-this is what it is all about, friends."  
He looked over at Marius, who was still not paying attention. With an exasperated sigh he leaned over Combeferre and ripped off a blank sheet of paper from his tablet, crumpled it up and threw it at Marius. It hit him squarely in the forehead and bounced off, drawing him from his reverie.  
  
"Marius, pay attention for once, damn it!" Enjolras said angrily.  
Grantaire burst into crazed laughter and he was not alone, many of the others joined him in having a good laugh at Marius.  
"You're no longer a child, Marius. I have no doubts that you mean it well, but now there is a higher call." Enjolras picked up the red shroud and shook it, then threw it at Marius. The lovesick youth caught it, looked down at the flag and then up at Enjolras once more. "Who cares about your lonely soul? We all strive towards a larger purpose. Our little lives don't count at all."  
Grantaire leaned back in his chair and gave a mock sigh of content. "L'amour.will you send her roses, Marius Pontmercy? Take care to make sure they are red, like the color of revolution." He stared up at the ceiling absently, a rather silly grin on his face.  
"Red." Enjolras whispered suddenly. "Red, like the blood of angry men." He smiled and snapped his fingers, then jumped up onto his chair. "That's it, don't you see it?" He looked around at all of his friends, waiting for them to catch on. Joly and Courfeyrac exchanged confused glances.  
"I once heard of black roses, as well." Said Grantaire, as he nodded his head wisely.  
Enjolras grinned. "And black, like the dark of ages past!" He wiggled his fingers excitedly, feeling his speech start to take shape. The others all started to grin as well, catching on finally. An excited fervor lit up the room. Enjolras held his hand out to Marius, motioning for him to return the flag. Marius tossed it back at his friend, who held it up. "Red, like a world about to dawn!"  
"And black?" Combeferre prompted.  
"The night that ends at last!" Enjolras cried. The students, Marius included, all threw their hands up with a jubilant cry. Enjolras jumped back to the floor. "Well Courfeyrac, do we have all the guns? Feuilly, Combeferre, our time is running short!" He paused and glanced at Grantaire, who was sitting placidly in his seat still. "Grantaire, put that bottle down! Do we have the guns we need?"  
Grantaire chuckled. "Just give me my brandy, and it'll all be fine."  
  
"Surely," said Feuilly, leaning over Grantaire's shoulder. "One whiff of your breath and the entire Garde Nationale will pass out."  
Enjolras waved a dismissive hand and turned aside.  
Combeferre pulled out a piece of paper. Courfeyrac leaned over his table and said, "In St. Antoine they're with us to a man."  
As he scribbled down words, Combeferre nodded. "I hear in Notre-Dame they're literally tearing up the stones in anticipation." He remarked as he wrote.  
"Twenty rifles, good as new!" Feuilly piped in.  
"With twenty rounds for every man," said Joly.  
Suddenly the café door burst open and little Gavroche ran in, shouting and waving his arms about. "Listen!"  
"Double that in Port St. Cloud." Jean Prouvaire said to Joly. Combeferre started scribbling madly on his tablet. Marius had joined Enjolras, smiling once more.  
Gavroche kept on waving his hands. "Listen to me!" he yelled.  
"Seven guns in St. Martin," Lesgles said to Combeferre as he was writing down the numbers.  
Finally Gavroche resorted to climbing atop a table and shouting at the top of his lungs: "Listen, everybody!"  
The café fell silent and all eyes turned to the street urchin. "General Lamarque." he puffed, pausing to catch his breath. ".is dead!"  
A wave pattern rippled through the room as all heads turned instantly to Enjolras. Marius, ashen-faced once more, put a hand on his friend's arm. Even Grantaire appeared to have sobered.  
"Lamarque.is dead." Enjolras echoed faintly. At that moment the Garde Nationale could have come storming into the café, and no one would have taken notice. "Lamarque, the people's man."  
Jean Prouvaire, a sudden frown on his face, turned to Gavroche and lifted the boy off the table to set him firmly on the ground.  
The look in Enjolras' eyes suddenly turned from one of despair to one of realization. "His death is the hour of fate, do you not see it? His death is the sign we have been awaiting!" He stepped away from Marius, looking at each and ever many (and boy) in the room before continuing. "On his funeral day, they will honor his name. It will be a railing cry that will reach every ear! In the death of Lamarque, we can kindle the flame- they will finally see that the day of salvation is near. The time is here, my friends!" Smiles had returned to every face once more. "Let us welcome it gladly, with courage and cheer!"  
The students all raised their voices in cheer. Even Gavroche joined in. Enjolras grabbed the red flag and jumped-skipped, rather-towards the door.  
"Let us take to the streets with no doubt in our hearts, and with a jubilant shout they will come one and all!" he cried. Again the students replied with an excited cry, and flooded out the door. 


End file.
